


Waltzing by the Wheat

by smoothmovebro



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Dancing, Ernst is a dancer, Fluff, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, but ernst is shorter than hanschen, no one is dead, no particular facecast in mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smoothmovebro/pseuds/smoothmovebro
Summary: Two boys, chilling a wheat field, no feet apart cuz they're super gay!Hanschen has a favour to ask of Ernst, and Ernst doesn't seem too happy about it at first...
Relationships: Hanschen Rilow/Ernst Robel
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Waltzing by the Wheat

**Author's Note:**

> hello! it's been a while since i posted and this is the second musical i'm writing fic for! lockdown truly had my creative juices flowing and it resulted in a Yearning piece of prose. enjoy!

When Hanschen Rilow invited Ernst Robel to the wheat field after school, neither of them knew what exactly would happen that afternoon.

"Please, Robel, it's a simple request!" Hanschen said, beckoning for Ernst to take his hand.

"A simple request is cleaning the blackboard after class. A simple request is lending notes for this week's Latin conjunctions. _This_ ," Ernst vaguely gestured between the two of them, "is anything but!"

Hanschen pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath. "You are the only person I can ask."

"Why me?"

"Do you think Otto would even think to go with me? When he's too busy fawning over that Marianna he keeps going on about? Do you think _Georg_ would want to partake in this when he is clearly preoccupied with his piano teacher? And finally, do you think Gabor and Stiefel would stoop so low to our mere levels?"

Hanschen waited for Ernst's reply. When the other boy said nothing, he continued, "And that is why I come to you. Besides, I'm sure you know more than you let on."

Ernst sputtered. "What makes you think that?!"

"Your insanely light footsteps."

Ernst looked at his feet. "Light footsteps?"

Hanschen laughed and stepped closer to Ernst, prompting Ernst to stiffen his shoulders. "Only boys who are knowledgeable in the art of dance know about the importance of light feet. You walk everywhere with such silence that even I get surprised when you are behind me when we walk outside at the gymnasium."

Ernst coughed and clasped his hands in front of himself. He started bobbing from his heels to the balls of his feet. "I suppose that is a fair assumption to make. But it is simply that: an assumption. You will need more than that to prove your case, according to the Socratic method of argument."

Hanschen sighed but smiled at the sheer stubbornness of the boy in front of him. He stepped once more so as to take Ernst by the waist and pull him close. Ernst yelped and instinctively reached for Hanschen's shoulders to steady himself.

"And this is my second proof. You're already assuming a position fit for a waltz when I held you."

Ernst had a fierce blush appear across his face. "You are too sly for your own good, Rilow! It's a surprise the headmaster still keeps you around, what with your... shenanigans."

"My shenanigans, you say?" Hanschen repeated. He pouted and looked at a further point beyond Ernst's shoulders. "And what are those shenanigans you speak of?"

Ernst laughed and prodded at Hanschen's chest, now comfortable in the embrace he found himself in. "You know well and good which ones. Your evening with Desdemona? That time in the vineyard?"

Hanschen's gaze snapped back to Ernst. He smiled. Ernst, feeling confident, took the opportunity to cup Hanschen's face in his hands and lean in for a kiss.

Despite their difference in height, Ernst was able to reach up to Hanschen with ease. Again, he was right about the dancing. Standing on his tiptoes wasn't an unusual thing for Ernst. Feeling Hanschen's pulse under his fingertips, Ernst drank in both the softness of the other boy's lips and the steady beat of his pulse. He smelled of chalk and sweat; an unusual combination but they added to the natural musk of Hanschen that culminated into this heady scent that Ernst couldn't help but inhale and lose himself in. There was no other joy he wanted in life but this moment; a moment of intimacy, of love, and of vulnerability. To release his inhibitions with someone who passed no judgment to him. To find solace in a world that demanded chaos and hierarchy. To hold a boy close and to feel all of him: the soft and the hard, the curves and the edges, all of it.

They pulled away from the kiss. Hanschen, ever the cocky bastard, smirked and said, "Now will you help me?"

Ernst sighed and relented. "Yes."

Hanschen grinned and it was the most beautiful thing Ernst saw that day. Without even thinking, Ernst let Hanschen take his hand so he could lead him further into the wheat field.

"This is a better spot," Hanschen said. "It helps me focus more."

"What exactly am I helping you with, if it requires such an intense focus from you?"

Hanschen held Ernst's hands and sighed. "I... never really learned how to dance. Not specifically for weddings. And my cousin is having her wedding soon. I would like to be prepared."

"I see," Ernst said, placing his hand on Hanschen's shoulder and intertwining their fingers with the other hand. "Place your other hand on my waist."

Ernst felt the years of training he had as a child come back to him like riding a bike; like it never left, like he never stopped doing it.

Hanschen watched in awe as the typically quiet and repressed boy took control of both their bodies and how they moved to the time of imaginary music. Ernst was a patient teacher, giving clear explanations and made clarifications where Hanschen had questions or confusion. They started with being able to move together without stepping on each other's toes. If Ernst moved back, Hanschen moved forward, and vice versa. They had difficulty when it came to side-stepping and turning, but it was nothing they couldn't overcome with more patience from the ever-lovely Ernst. As they stepped in one-two-three, Hanschen felt his feet follow the rhythm until he could do it without thinking about it. When Ernst taught him embellishments such as that particular turn or the dip, the other boy's wholehearted trust in Hanschen made Hanschen's heart ache, but in a good way.

"You've been quiet the whole time. What's the matter?" Ernst said, finally letting go and stepping back. Hanschen immediately ached for the touch. It took all his willpower not to reach out.

"Nothing, it's just... You're wonderful."

Ernst took a deep but shaky breath. He assumed that closed off stance before with the hands clasped in front of him. "Please do not confuse competence with excellence when you do not know what the latter looks like." It felt like such a stiff phrase, even for him. Why was he being so cold?

"But I know what excellence looks like and it's standing right in front of me this very moment."

"You flatter me so, Rilow. You and your silver tongue!"

"But didn't this silver tongue persuade you to become better? To rise through the ranks in class so that you didn't have to worry about grades anymore?"

Ernst pursed his lips for a moment. Hanschen was right; he helped him raise his grades when he realised he was one rank above Stiefel, who came last in class for the midterms. If he scored any lower, he would have risked failing to proceed to the next grade. He couldn't have that; not with his looming father and poor mother. After many afternoons spent in the library, buried in books about calculus and Latin, Hanschen helped Ernst learn the difference between _sum_ and _eram,_ among other things. Of course, those afternoons weren't just spent on studying, but that was beside the point.

Hanschen pulled Ernst in for a deep kiss, one that made both of them weak at the knees. They tumbled deep into the wheat as the air grew cold but their bodies grew warmer and warmer.

"You will be the death of me," Ernst said through a shaky breath.

"As would you," Hanschen replied.


End file.
